He's been retired for three years, but John Merrick of Danbury still remembers his most harrowing experience behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler.

He was headed home on the Major Deegan Expressway in Bronx, N.Y., pulling an empty trailer behind him, when a car sped off an entrance ramp just north of Yankee Stadium and cut directly across his path.

"I hit the brakes, and because the trailer was empty it started fish-tailing," Merrick, who's now 68, recalled. The rear of the swinging trailer banged against the median barrier as Merrick desperately battled for control, fighting to keep the truck from jackknifing.

"Finally, I was able to drive out of it without hitting any other cars," Merrick said. "But the other driver had no idea what he did. He just kept going."

Ask any truck driver who's been on the road long enough and such stories are commonplace: Motorists who cross three lanes of traffic without checking their rear or side view mirrors, who try to get into the left lane immediately after entering the highway, or who cross to the right because they're about to miss their exit.

"People have no idea what it takes to stop one of these," said Steve Weinberg, a truck driver from Bethel who's racked up nearly 4 million miles over the past 35 years.

Stan Spielvogel of Danbury has watched truckers on Interstate 84 every workday for the past three years, during his 140-mile round trip commute, most of it on I-84, to an aerospace company in Windsor.

"I leave the house at 5:30 a.m. every day, and there's not much else to do except watch how people drive," Spielvogel said. "I would say that 99 percent of the truck drivers are very proficient. There's never any arrogance or road rage. If anything, these poor guys are getting cut off by people weaving in front of them."

Helga Silverstein of Danbury has a much shorter commute than Spielvogel, driving from Exit 8 to Exit 2 every morning at 7 a.m.

But she tells a similar story.

"I see cars cutting off trucks all the time, especially by Exit 4. I'm surprised the drivers can even keep them on the road sometimes. I drive an SUV and I get cut off, too," Silverstein said.

If such tactics look hazardous at pavement level, the view from high above the road can be downright frightening, truckers say.

"I see scary stuff every day," said Weinberg, who hauls hazardous materials in a tanker truck. "People are playing with their phones and text messaging. You can see them holding their phones up above the steering wheel, and this is on the interstate, doing 65 or 70 miles per hour."

Years ago, Weinberg said, he used to see motorists reading reports or working out of their brief case on the seat beside them. "Now, it's mostly cell phone related," he said.

Merrick, who drove all kinds of heavy trucks for nearly 30 years, said the problem of inattentive motorists has worsened in the last 15 years.

"People have too many devices. They are busy playing with their phones or their GPS, and they are unaware of what they should be doing, which is driving their cars," he said.

Inattentive drivers aside, Weinberg said not enough is done to educate drivers about unsafe driving tactics near trucks.

"There's nothing in the driver's manual about driving around a truck. I try and leave five or six car lengths between me and the car in front. But people are always filling in the gaps," he said.